The House is expected to vote Thursday on a sweeping $9 billion-plus rescissions package that would slash foreign aid and cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, even as deeper dysfunction in the congressional appropriations process threatens another government shutdown this fall.
The legislation, drafted by the White House and backed by Republican leadership, is likely to pass despite resistance from some GOP moderates and unified Democratic opposition.
The vote arrives amid growing uncertainty over the fiscal year 2026 spending process. With little progress in either chamber on the 12 annual appropriations bills, lawmakers are increasingly resigned to the likelihood of another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open past September, Punchbowl News reports.
"If I were betting man right now, given the current environment, we will appropriate money by CR for the foreseeable future," said Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "So if you have a chance to change from the Approps Committee to Finance, you probably ought to do it."
The House Appropriations Committee is expected to complete markup of four spending bills by Friday, all written to match the lower spending levels in former President Donald J. Trump’s budget proposal. The package includes tens of billions in cuts to domestic programs, making it a nonstarter for Democrats and the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Complicating matters further, Senate appropriators have not yet agreed on a topline number for spending. Senators Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and the committee’s ranking member, are not expected to reach a deal until after Republicans pass their reconciliation bill — likely no earlier than July.
“We just don’t know yet,” said Representative Tom Cole (R-OK), chair of the House Appropriations Committee. “Let’s assume we pass the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ I don’t think we know what that does. Does that break things loose or not?”
“There’s plenty of people on our side who like a CR,” he added. “It could easily happen again. It’s bad governance.”
The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” - a Trump-endorsed initiative - includes $175 billion for border security, $150 billion in military spending, and a two-year increase in the debt ceiling. Democrats have rejected the measure, citing deep cuts to domestic programs and the absence of accountability mechanisms on executive spending.
Some Republicans, however, suggest that Trump and his advisers may prefer the flexibility afforded by a CR - or even a government shutdown, particularly if the BBB is signed into law.
"I think there are probably some people in the administration who think quite frankly that they have more flexibility under a CR or even a shutdown," said Representative Ken Calvert (R-CA), chair of the Defense Subcommittee on House Appropriations. "I think that shocks a lot of members here."
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), warned that repeated use of CRs undermines congressional authority.
"If we do two CRs in a row, it will be a self-inflicted wound by Senate Republican appropriators and Senate Republicans to diminish not just the power of the committee but to diminish Congress’s power of the purse," he said.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), said the effect is to sideline legislative input on federal spending. "Any long-term CR plays into what it seems this administration would like, which is bills with no guardrails," she said.
The underlying tension is a struggle over control of federal spending between Congress and the executive branch. Democrats blame Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought for flouting the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which requires presidents to spend money as appropriated by Congress.
Republicans counter that Democrats stalled earlier efforts to reach a compromise, particularly over efforts to restrict Trump’s spending discretion. “You’re not gonna have a Republican Senate and the House limit a Republican president,” said Cole.
The political cost of such battles has already been significant. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost his position over a CR. Speaker Mike Johnson vowed early in his tenure to avoid repeating that path, but growing pressure within his conference suggests another short-term funding bill is increasingly likely.
Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, offered a grim assessment.
"To hell with the Congress," she said. "It’s bad for the American people. It’s bad for the American people. They’re lying about what’s in these bills. That’s the tragedy."
Meanwhile, on a lighter note, Republicans defeated Democrats 13–2 in Wednesday night’s Congressional Baseball Game - their fifth straight win. More than 31,000 tickets were sold, raising $2.8 million for charity.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have successfully amended their party-line tax and spending package, eliminating policies that would have ruined the Big Beautiful Bill's ability to be passed without a simple majority, and would have been subject to Democrat filibuster.
Among the major items deleted, "$2 billion for Pentagon military intelligence programs and more than $500 million for developing missiles, as well as removing a crackdown on the “employee retention” tax credit that became a magnet for fraudsters during and after the pandemic," according to Politico.
Republicans are now hoping to rewrite some of these policies tossed by the House and fold them into the Senate's version of the package before their target passage date of July 4th.